Tributes Pour In For Brisbane Performer Jamie Wood
Image: Jamie Wood. Image: Facebook.
Tributes have flooded social media in the last 24 hours after the death of much loved and talented Brisbane-based performer Jamie Wood.
With the news having sent shockwaves throughout the tight-knit Brisbane community, a GoFundMe campaign set up to help Jamie’s family meet the funeral and other expenses has in under 24 hours raised over $ 9,000.
Rhi Parsons a close family and childhood friend of Jamie told Star Observer that organisers had “wanted to take that worry away from the family so they could concentrate on celebrating his life.”
“It has been absolutely shocking and devastating, and his family really want to highlight that Jamie had fought battles with his mental health for ten years, it’s just so sad that it has ended this way.” Parson added.
‘Life Of The Party’
“He was a massive character in Brisbane’s LGBTQI community, he has travelled across the world performing, he was hugely talented and a beautiful human. His very well known in the community, not just because of his talent but his personality, he was the life of the party.
Remembering his best friend, Trey Smith told Star Observer “You know how people often describe someone as how they ‘light up a room’ or are ‘the brightest star in the sky’?”
“Jamie was so much more than that. The best way I can describe Jamie is like… You know when you’re out clubbing or just driving or walking your dog; even when you’re just doing the grocery shopping and your favourite song comes on and it instantly fills you with butterflies, it fills you with energy and such a blissful joy that you just want to dance and sing out aloud? That was how Jamie made me feel, every time I was with him.”
“His effervescence was infatuating and anyone who met him would agree. There’s not one single moment in our many years of friendship where we didn’t laugh together, have fun together, didn’t LIVE together. Knowing that those moments are now the last memories I’ll ever have of our times together is beyond agonising but I’m hoping in time, they’ll make me smile as beautifully as he did.”
As a professional dancer who worked on cruise ships, Jamie was also a regular performer at Brisbane’s Fluffy’s Nightclub in Fortitude Valley. It was here that Brisbane local Matt Lucas first met Jamie. Lucas told Star Observer that “Jamie was always the person laughing smiling, joking.
“Brisbane has definitely lost one of the key figures in our community,” said Lucas.
For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14
For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.
